Local 512

July 19, 2024

My fellow 512 family,

A faulty software update caused a nationwide outage during the late night of July 18, 2024. Airlines lost access to check-in and booking services during the peak travel season, and thousands of flights were canceled. Tens of thousands were delayed due to ground stops—an update issued by cybersecurity firm CrownStrike, a third-party vendor that handles Microsoft Windows operating systems. You can thank them for the mandatory overtime.

APFA, the flight attendants' union, reached a tentative agreement with American Airlines today. The agreement addresses concerns about critical areas of compensation retroactive pay, contractual improvements, and preserving work rules. The board of directors and their executive committee will meet next Wednesday, July 24th, to review the agreement. We don’t have the full details of the tentative agreement.

The TWU/IAM Association M&R Negotiating Committee met in Chicago (ORD) to finalize preparations for the upcoming negotiations with American Airlines. They will meet on August 13th and 14th at TWU Local 591 Headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, to start Section 6. The members' active involvement and support are crucial as we move forward.

Next week, we will attend the Grievance Review Board meetings at the IAM 141 District Office. We will present our 33(b) Presidential Grievance and other level 3 grievances.

American Airlines Pension Investigation: A law firm is investigating whether American Airlines underpays retirees receiving joint and survivor annuities, which are pensions where a spouse continues to receive payments after the retiree dies. The investigation focuses on three plans: (1) TWU Retirement Benefit Plan; (2) Retirement Benefit Plan for Agent, Management, Specialist, Support Personnel, and Officers; and (3) Retirement Benefits Plan for Flight Attendants. If you have worked for AA and have started collecting pension benefits in the last six (6) years, you can contact attorney Chris Barrett for a quick, confidential, and risk-free consultation. He can be reached at 860-513-2937 and cbarrett@ikrlaw.com. It is only for those receiving joint and survivor annuities. They believe benefits might have been miscalculated.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our 512 family for joining us at our TWU Local 512 annual picnic and making it a huge success. We also had the honor of having our TWU International President John Samuelsen, TWU Air Division Andre Sutton, and International M&R Rep Rollie Reeves attend. We will be posting the pictures soon.

Our next event is the Golf Outing on Monday, July 29^th. If you'd like to join us, please stop by the field office or call our VP, Mike Szwed, to reserve a spot. All active and retirees are welcome.

Sincerely and fraternally,

Juan Elvira

President – TWU Local 512